Basics of the Bulgarian Bag: Part 1

As trainers, we all want to learn the latest methods and modalities that will increase the potential for our clients to achieve their goals and objectives. If we could train our clients with only one tool that offered: 1) high levels of relative muscular strength, 2) muscular endurance, 3) speed, 4) power, 5) agility, 6) balance, 7) joint mobility, and 8) muscle flexibility, we would be providing them an incredible solution. If we could also train our clients in a high intensity (i.e., HIIT) environment that enabled superior energy system development in both anaerobic and aerobic capacities utilizing a relatively safe and injury-proof platform, it is almost certain they would immediately say, “Bring it!”

Training with the Bulgarian Bag can offer your clients all of those attributes and so much more.

Learning Objectives:

Review the benefits of training with the Bulgarian Bag.

Explore how the Bulgarian Bag can (and should) have an integral role in functional training.

Understand how forces in the natural environment affect the use of the Bulgarian Bag in training.

Learn the foundational Bulgarian Bag movement patterns.

History of the Bulgarian Bag

My partner, Ivan Ivanov, invented the Bulgarian Bag around 2005. A former Bulgarian Greco-Roman Olympic athlete, who at the time was working as the U.S. Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling coach at the Olympic training center in Marquette, Michigan, Coach Ivanov was inspired by his native Bulgaria. There, shepherds often carry weak lambs and goats around their shoulders while tending their herds. For centuries, shepherds had shown off their physical prowess by using sheep and small bulls in various feats of strength during local festivals.

Coach Ivanov based the design of his tool on the body of a bovine and saw its use as a modern interpretation of the old tradition. He was looking for a training tool that would allow his Olympic wrestlers to improve explosive actions and dynamic movements involved in pushing, twisting, swinging, pulling, bending, rotating, squatting, lunging, and throwing - in a safe, yet effective manner.

Broader Applications

Although the Bulgarian Bag was initially designed for Olympic class wrestlers, it has come to be adopted by fitness trainers and professional athletes for its ability to increase muscular endurance, anaerobic capacity, nervous system integration, grip strength and mental toughness. Bulgarian Bag training also provides a transition from traditional training methods to the non-traditional.

In recent years, the Bulgarian Bag had only been utilized in the U.S. Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling program, but was quickly adopted by wrestling programs around the world as coaches began to see the benefits the Bulgarian Bag afforded their athletes.

In 2008, Coach Ivanov took Adam Wheeler, Randi Miller, and Spencer Mango to the 2008 London Olympics. Both Adam Wheeler and Randi Miller (a female) walked away with bronze medals in the Greco-Roman Wrestling event. When speaking with Coach Ivanov while discussing this article, he stated that in preparation for these games, the Bulgarian Bag was one of the primary tools he used to develop increased muscular endurance and willpower. Grip strength and endurance, as well as anaerobic capacity, naturally follow the increases in muscular endurance, as the Bulgarian Bag is extremely grip intensive and requires tremendous mental focus.

​Bulgarian Bag movements require full body muscle recruitment from toe to head, thus central nervous system up regulation and integration are implicated, resulting from a unique tool that provides tremendous carryover to any physical endeavor.

Although the feedback has been anecdotal from coaches and athletes because no formal scientific studies have been conducted, review by such fitness professionals as Scott Hopson utilizing scientific principles, has started to bring validation to this versatile tool.

Trainers should understand the science behind the biomechanical benefits of this innovative, movement-based tool. To obtain superior results training with the Bulgarian Bag, physics, kinesiology, and physiology principles must be applied to movement, strength development, development of superior joint specific muscle endurance, and metabolic rate increases.

A trainer armed with the knowledge of how to manipulate these variables will be able to have better carryover to practical application and performance increases with his or her clients; particularly with the correct techniques in the development of force with the Bulgarian Bag.

Remaining Injury Free

Training with the Bulgarian Bag will train the body (joints, ligament, tendons, and muscles) to deal with the demands of the various training environments. The methods applied can strike a balance between joint strength, joint mobility, and adequate flexibility to allowing us to cope with varying training volumes and intensities, remaining injury free.

Benefits

Benefits of training with the Bulgarian Bag on a regular basis, up to two to three times weekly, include:

A time-efficient workout

Requires little or no set-up

Movement-based

Dynamic in nature

High volume of training in a short period of time (training sessions are completed in 45 minutes or less – see also, “time-efficient” above)

Develops grip strength and endurance (direct carryover to all other training modalities)

Increases metabolic rate to accelerate fat loss and promote the development of lean muscle mass.

Excels in HIIT environment

The Bulgarian Bag provokes every system in the body and brain, establishing the importance of understanding the human structure. The unique design of the Bulgarian Bag makes it incredibly functional and versatile. It can be used in a myriad of ways:

Functional Movement Patterns

Pull/Push/Carry/Throw/Rotate

Functional movement is fundamentally defined as primal movement patterns; such as pushing, squatting, lunging, throwing, rotating, and pulling that are part of our everyday lives. One of the key strengths of the Bulgarian Bag is the ability to train through a wide range of movement patterns. From simple, single-joint movements, progressing up to dynamic compound-movements with high force production qualities; as well as allowing flexion, rotation and extension all while under a dynamic load. There are few other safe and versatile tools, aside from the Bulgarian Bag, that can provide this highly dynamic opportunity and compatibility for a variety of clients.

When looking at functional movement patterns there are many descriptions as to what this really means, but the following elements must be included in the concept to fully understand what functional movement is:

Maintenance of your center of gravity over your own base of support – Result: Increased balance/stability

Core Fundamental Movement Patterns with the Bulgarian Bag

The movements for the Bulgarian Bag are broken into movement patterns, instead of body parts. As the Bulgarian Bag requires full body integration, movement patterns are the most appropriate way to distinguish the exercise movements. The three core fundamental movements with the Bulgarian Bag are:

The Spin

The Swing Snatch

The Arm Throw

Mastering these fundamental movement patterns provides the foundational carryover and skill development to master additional movements.

The Spin

Benefits:

Tri-planar movement

Total body involvement

Efficient loading and unloading

o LOADING: Lengthening of the muscle.

o UNLOADING: We have to lengthen or load the muscle before we can unload and develop the contractile force.

o WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT: This is important because joint angles of specific movements may affect force production. Learning the proper technique and developing the skills to perform the movement correctly can and will affect the amount of muscle recruitment generated for a specific movement and the results attained from performing that movement.

oPressing through a flat foot with emphasis on pressing your big toe into the ground. This technique enables you, even though you are shifting back, to press through a flat foot for increased stability and stronger base of support, as well as having increased muscle and facial tension through the leg and core.

Arm position/Vector lines of force/Head position

Pre-tensioning of superficial front line (SFL) to create a “Rubber Band Effect”

Gluteus and hamstrings recruitment should be used to break inertial movement with arms contributing once bag is moving

Making Physics Work for Us, Not Against Us

There are forces in the environment that are always present, always working, and always affecting our physical performance: gravity, momentum, vectors, velocity, mechanical feedback- movement, as well as resistance that is changed as a result of force application, Ground Reaction Force (GRF), mass, inertia (working with acceleration and deceleration), load distribution, body position (joint angles and moment arms).

At any given time, the forces in the environment are either working for us, or against us, and are therefore obstacles we have to overcome. Having a technical understanding and applied practical application of how to manipulate these elements can help you to understand how to use the Bulgarian Bag to its full potential.

One of the many outstanding attributes of the Bulgarian Bag is that it can be used to manipulate the above elements, and not only manipulate, but provide ways to train the body to adapt effectively with these forces; therefore increasing performance in any modality we train.

Conclusion

The Bulgarian Bag is an incredibly versatile and dynamic tool that can be utilized with clients of any age and fitness level. It offers superior dynamic load-based movement while training at high intensities with very low risk of injury. The Bulgarian Bag can be a key component in any serious training program, from the serious athlete to the average client looking to achieve better fitness and quality of life.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series, which will address program design.

About the author: Stephen Nave

Steve’s philosophy is simple: “You must believe that winning/goal attainment/mission accomplishment is possible. As long as you truly believe that you can reach your goals and objectives, you will. That belief in yourself and abilities is real. Tangible. It’s that belief that creates the passion that will drive you to willingly pay the price for your success.”

Steve served 23 years in the U.S. Navy, with 18 as a Navy SEAL. He was also a Navy SEAL Instructor in the Naval Special Warfare Physical Training Center in Coronado, California and trained the men in BUD/S who would go on to become SEALs. Steve understands what it means to take people to the edge and beyond, testing their physical strength, muscle endurance, aerobic and anaerobic capabilities as well as increasing mental toughness through establishing a winning mindset. Steve is multi-faceted. Concurrent to his physical training and coaching, he works protecting the oceans commercial vessels from the piracy threat across most of the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Aden and Red Sea.

His experience has proven that through the right training techniques and proper nutrition anything can be achieved, both mentally and physically. Steve has the experience to help his clients achieve new peaks in both their physical and mental abilities (talent that enables someone to achieve a great deal) that allows them to be pushed much harder and more intensely then they thought possible. He has taken thousands of students beyond their self-perceived mental and physical limitations. They became harder, stronger, faster and more confident in themselves and their abilities then at any point in their lives, able to accomplish more than they could have imagined.

We all know the importance of exercise, but not too many people know the importance of the equipment we use to perform our exercise. People are getting smarter about their exercise or training choices to meet their fitness goals and aspirations. As the fitness industry is shifting towards movement based exercise and away from isolation movements, the timing is just right for the amazing benefits of the Bulgarian Bag. There are so many choices out there, kettlebells, TRX, dumbbells, barbells, and bands. How does someone make the best decision on which tools (or combination of tools) to use to meet his or her fitness goals? Steve believes that the use of education and training to help people really understanding why they are using a particular tools over another is rooted in the best decision making, not only for meeting your fitness goals, but, being the most effective with your time spent on training compared to the potential results and benefits attained.